FINALLY a Horror Box Office Success

Paranormal Activity 2 is having a great weekend. It set a new record for opening midnight show grosses for an R rated film taking in $6.3 million from 1,800 venues. The previous record was held by Watchmen with $4.6 million so this was a blowout win. It didn’t stop there though. Paranormal Activity 2 has also brought in and estimated $20 million from 3,216 theaters on Friday and another 14 million on Saturday. Early predictions are calling for a weekend gross of 43.5 million total though final numbers won’t be out until Monday afternoon. It has already topped the first Paranormal Activity which took in $21.1 million in it’s first weekend from 1,945 locations. This movie is quickly becoming a franchise that will fill the void that Saw is leaving for many.

This is a breath of fresh air from the lackluster box office results of many other horror movies that have been released. Now none of them got the same marketing budget as Paranormal Activity and some even looked downright bad anyways but all the same it’s great to see a R rated horror film take what should the number one spot in the box office. Previous horror flops recently have been My Soul To Take which has taken in $12.9 million (no shock there though right?), Case 39 which took in $12.3 million, and Let Me In which grossed a measly $11.36 million. Weak sauce right? I don’t blame the movies for all of these results though because Case 39 sat on the shelf for years and was released without much advertising while Let Me In faced the controversy of remaking a already popular foreign film. It’s still nice to see a horror film succeed though.